Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Accent

Media Credit: Heidi Eysser Kipp Howard, a senior English major from Kingston, N.Y., opens the Corner Street poetry reading at The Grind Coffee House. Monday's reading was the six-month anniversary of the Corner Street events, and April is National Poetry Month. The next and final Corner Street poetry reading will take place April 28.

For the past six months, Kipp Howard, a senior English major from Kingston, N.Y., has single-handedly organized poetry readings known as Corner Street; one of these readings took place Monday at The Grind Coffee House.

Howard said Monday's reading was one of the best.

"I personally enjoyed it," he said. "We have never had such a small crowd, but I felt it was better than any other time."

Tamara Weldon, a 19-year-old Cedar City resident, said she often attends the Corner Street readings and said Monday's reading was one of the best ones.

Weldon said she personally enjoys the readings with smaller groups.

She said she has attended the readings with her boyfriend, Ben Helquist, a 2007 SUU graduate and Cedar City resident, who also read Monday.

Weldon said she enjoys Helquist's poems, but she also enjoyed the other presenters.

Alexis Paul, a 2007 SUU graduate and Cedar City resident, said she thought her reading went well, too.

"I'm pleased of how I read and how everybody reacted to it," she said.

Paul said this was her first reading, and the poems she shared were some of the first poems she had written.

"It took a lot of work and there was a lot revision," she said. "I went through a lot of paper."

Paul said she also enjoyed the poetry of the other readers on Monday night.

"I think they (were) great," she said. "They have a great bunch of minds, (and) they are really intelligent and good people."

Paul said she has attended other Corner Street events and thought they have gone well, but thought more people should have come to the readings.

"I'm really upset more people didn't come and see them, because I think they could have been exposed to some awesome thoughts and different ways of looking at the world," she said.

Howard said there will be one more reading on April 28.

"In a nutshell, it may be the last Corner Street ever," he said.

Howard said he plans to have all the poets who have read at least once before read one of their poems that night.

"It will be a 'best of' night," he said.

Besides the poets, Howard said Cedar City musician Steven Swift will play his guitar and there will be an independent film shown.

"It is free (and) it is cultural for Cedar City," he said. "It should be a good show, hopefully, and if not, it is OK, too."

Howard said even if someone isn't familiar with poetry, they would still most likely enjoy Corner Street.

"If they aren't doing anything, this is such an engaging time to just relax and enjoy something different," he said.

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